Israeli Settler Kills Palestinian Activist Featured in Oscar-Winning Film

Odeh Muhammad Hadalin, a prominent Palestinian activist and educator from Masafer Yatta, was murdered in cold blood by an armed Israeli settler during a brutal assault on the village of Umm al-Khair in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian officials and eyewitnesses.

Hadalin, whose efforts to expose the suffering of Palestinians under occupation were documented in the Oscar-winning film No Other Land, was standing outside the community center when he was targeted by Zionist gunfire.

“He was standing in front of the community center in his village when a settler fired a bullet that pierced his chest and took his life,” said Palestinian journalist and co-director of the film, Basel Adra.

“This is how Israel erases us — one life at a time,” he added.

Israeli co-director Yuval Abraham confirmed Hadalin's assassination and posted a video of the attack, identifying the shooter as Yinon Levi, an extremist settler already sanctioned by the EU and US for violence against Palestinians.

“This is him in the video firing like crazy,” Abraham wrote.

The Palestinian Ministry of Education mourned the loss of Hadalin and denounced the Zionist regime’s ongoing war crimes against the Palestinian people.

Israeli police, while acknowledging the incident, attempted to obscure the truth by issuing vague statements. They confirmed detaining an “Israeli citizen” and arresting four Palestinians and two international witnesses—an attempt to silence testimonies and manipulate the narrative.

The attack left another Palestinian wounded after being beaten by a settler and taken to hospital, according to Wafa news agency.

Masafer Yatta, the area Hadalin belonged to, has long been under systematic Israeli aggression, with residents resisting forced expulsions after the occupation declared the region a so-called “military firing zone”—a cover for ethnic cleansing.

The killing occurred as the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem issued a damning report about the Tel Aviv regime’s genocide in Gaza and the West Bank. The report highlighted a surge in Zionist settler terrorism, carried out with impunity and full state support.

“These attacks include arson, theft, home invasions and takeovers, armed threats, beatings, and more,” B’Tselem stated.

Over 1,000 Palestinians have been martyred in the West Bank since the Zionist regime launched its full-scale onslaught on Gaza in October 2023.

Earlier on Monday, occupation forces also shot and killed 27-year-old Mohammad Samer Suleiman al-Jamal at a checkpoint near Hebron, leaving him to bleed to death while ambulances were blocked from reaching him—yet another war crime in Israel’s expanding record of atrocities.

The regime’s campaign of systematic violence, backed by Western silence and impunity, continues to claim Palestinian lives with relentless brutality.